The damage looks harmless. A broken glass and a dent that could have been worse. Yet it cost over 54,000 kroner to fix this Rivian cosmetically.
A dent in a Rivian R1T ended up costing over 54,000 kroner to fix. Electric cars can generally be more expensive to repair than their combustion engine counterparts.
And this R1T is a chilling example of how the bill sometimes – if not often – runs away.
The owner of the car himself writes this on the social media Reddit .
Rivian has already gained a reputation for their cars being extremely expensive to repair. This is due to special spare parts, a limited number of branded workshops, the fact that the cars are complex to disassemble, and the fact that many parts are built together.
For this reason, even minor injuries can become a huge financial blow.
Other cases of dents in the brand's cars have already underlined this. In 2023, it cost almost 300,000 kroner to repair another R1T after a minor traffic accident. A third time, it cost over 140,000 kroner to replace a bent rear fender.
Now a fourth R1T owner is facing an equally horrific bill. This time it was a concrete pillar in a parking garage that 'did' the damage.
And what actually happened? Well, the glass for one of the taillights is cracked. In addition, the tailgate and rear bumper have received minor damage.
The owner shared a photo of the damage on Reddit. At first glance, the damage doesn't look extensive. It also doesn't appear that the body itself has suffered any damage beyond the dent.
It is unclear what exactly caused the workshop bill to explode. But it is certainly not the 10,000 kroner that the owner's insurance company initially expected.
The final bill from an authorized Rivian repair shop is more than 54,000 kroner. An enormous amount for what is minor damage.
But it does highlight that electric cars can be an expensive pleasure when things go wrong. Something that is important to show if you as a driver are considering buying an electric car. And it actually doesn't matter whether the car is new or used.
Here at home, journalist Anders Berner has, for example, told how Fiat (the Stellantis group, ed.) wants over 70,000 kroner for a so-called Onboard charger for an electric Fiat 500.
Some the car cannot run without, and as Fiat also codes directly to the car from the factory, so it doesn't work to throw a used unit in.
Repairing electric cars can be complex. As it stands, many of the cars require specialized knowledge as well as access to specific parts and software. This can make ownership more expensive for drivers.
However, it doesn't have to be a fault directly on the cars that makes them an expensive pleasure. Here in Denmark, a chassis center had to pay compensation of several thousand kroner after an electric Skoda was damaged. Read more about it here .
